Want a website design for your business? Then of course you want it to look professional and be well put together. Having a good website is very important.
If your website does not look professional or is very slow, website visitors will turn around and go to a competitor's website. Of course, you don't want that! In this blog we will guide you through the world of websites, tell you what to look for and what options are available. In short, everything you need to know about it in this blog.
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Online website makers
There are a lot of online website makers these days that allow you to design and put a website online yourself. That might cause you to run into the dilemma: create it yourself or outsource?
What are your expectations for your website?
Of course, we as a web agency may be a bit biased in that choice, but we have to admit that it is not impossible to do a website design yourself. You just have to carefully consider what your expectations are for your website and whether it is feasible to do it yourself. You should also not forget your competitors in this choice. If they have a very good and professional website, you should be able to compete with them. Will you be able to do it yourself, or would it be better to have your website designed by an external party?
If you want more than a somewhat simple website that serves as an online business card, then we definitely recommend going for website design. Simply because a web agency has the specialists for that. They can design the website entirely according to your wishes and make sure that your website can hold the visitors.
Want to invest time or money in your website?
You may be thinking of going ahead with a website yourself to save costs. But remember that a lot of time goes into creating a professional website. So are you going to save time and have a good professional website design? Or do you get started yourself and invest a lot of time in it?
Having your website maintained
After having a website created, it also needs to be maintained to keep it up-to-date and secure. This is fairly easy to do yourself, but can also be outsourced if you don't want to do it yourself.
Monkey Vision offers a monthly maintenance package. When you use this, we maintain your website for you. We check your website weekly to make sure there are no problems. This way we make sure that your website is safe and fast. In addition, we make sure your website is properly secured. You don't have to worry about possible hacker attacks. Should it still happen that your website is hacked, we will make sure that it is completely restored.
Besides these standard maintenance tasks, we will give you a monthly report of everything we have done for your website. Do you ever run into problems? We are always available for all your questions and problems. Feel free to contact us.
What do you need to pay attention to?
Okay, you've made your mind up whether to create your own website or have it created. Here's what to look for when creating a professional website. Or in other words: what should your website comply with?
The readability, usability and attractiveness of your website is very important. After all, your target audience should be able to easily use your website and also like and like your website. If your website does not meet these requirements, your target audience will turn around after they have arrived at your website.
There are 10 elements that contribute to these aspects. These are what you should pay close attention to when having a professional website created:
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Also have a brand identity and logo created
A brand identity with a good logo ensures that your brand becomes recognizable to the target group. It shows who you are as a brand and should also be continued beyond your website. Include this in all other expressions, such as on social media.
Still looking for a party to create a logo and brand identity for you? Our friends at Heroes & Weirdos are rock solid at this!
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Provide a strong intro with slogan and mission statement
The introductory text is the first piece of text that appears at the top of your website. With this piece of text you can immediately show your website visitors who you are and what you stand for. It is important then that the headline of the text appeals to the reader, that it contains a good tagline, and that your brand and its mission are clearly conveyed.
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Use call-to-actions
You have a goal with your website. Of course, part of that is to be able to show who you are, but mostly you want conversion to occur. By that we mean that you obviously want readers to buy something from you, purchase a service or contact you.
A call-to-action helps get these conversions. It is urging the reader to proceed to a desired action. Think clear buttons and clear text such as: read more here or join now. Making your call-to-actions stand out is done by using good text and striking colors.
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Use strong colors
Good use of color may be more important in having a professional website design than you think. After all, colors can make your website more readable. It can also contribute to the attractiveness of a button; thus improving the call-to-action. Many studies have been done on the effects of colors. Not quite there yourself? Our web designers can help you!
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Ensure good navigation
It is very important that your website is well put together and also easy to navigate. Your menu should be visible and in a clear place, at the top of your website. In addition, it is also important that the pages on your website and the page titles are made so that visitors know where to go and what information can be found on a page.
When you have a professional website made, this will be taken into account immediately. Are you going to get started yourself? Then it is a point to keep in mind while creating the website.
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Choose appropriate photos and/or illustrations
To make your website and the texts on it more attractive, you should use photos and illustrations. It is then wise not to just use pictures that are beautiful, but that they connect to your brand and message. For example, a picture of a sweet puppy here would be very nice, but of course it says nothing about Monkey Vision or the information from this blog. So not recommended.
For good photos, you can use an online photo bank (stock photos) or have photos taken by a photographer. By having your own photos taken, you immediately create a personal touch to your website and content. Do illustrations fit well with your brand? Then those can certainly be used as well.
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Prove your strength: prices and testimonials
Visitors to your website today are not easily convinced. They like to see proof of what you promise to do. Do you have important certificates? Show them on your website. It immediately gives your website a professional look.
Customer reviews can also contribute to this. Potential customers like to hear from others what they think of products and services and will make their choice accordingly. So be sure to ask your customers to leave a nice review. You can read exactly how reviews work and how to get them in the blog that two of our online marketers wrote for Frankwatching. You can read it here.
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Choose a suitable font
This point partly ties in with the one about brand identity, but is incredibly important for the readability of your website. When choosing a font, make sure it fits your brand identity and logo, but is also easy to read. If your website visitors have to try very hard to see what is written, they will leave the website. For the text font, go for simple and clean.
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Provide information about products/services and the team
When you get a professional website made, you most likely have a service or product you want to sell. Tell your website visitors about this, too. Give them information about what it entails, what the benefits are and what the price is. And to make your brand even more appealing, tell a little about the brand and the people behind it. People often like to know a little more about a company.
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Provide contact options
Show your contact information! This is perhaps one of the most important of these 10 points. You need to give your website visitors the option to contact you. Put your phone number and email address on the homepage, at the bottom of the site and on a contact page. Preferably show the address as well. Want to make it even easier for your potential customers to contact you? Then have a contact form on your professional website design.
What are the possibilities at Monkey Vision?
Now comes the next point: what is possible for a website? You obviously want your website to stand out and be more beautiful and better than those of your competitors, but how?
At Monkey Vision we have many options, both in the design and functionality of the website, as well as everything else involved. The options we have at Monkey Vision Vision:
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Get a (professional) website design
When you let Monkey Vision Vision create your professional website, we work on it together until the website is absolutely perfect. With many sites under our belt, we have gained a lot of experience to make sure your website is just the way you want it.
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Having an ecommerce store design created
Want to sell your products directly from the Internet? Then an ecommerce store is a must. At Monkey Vision we have had the pleasure of creating many effective ecommerce stores, so we know exactly how to apply the right techniques. We ensure that all necessary payment methods are linked and that the ecommerce store works optimally.
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Search engine optimization (SEO).
Having a professional website design is the first step, but then your target audience also needs to know how to find your website. Search engine optimization makes sure that your website is easier to find in Google. The better you apply search engine optimization, the higher the chance that you will rank high in Google. And that is useful, because just think about how you use Google yourself; you probably don't look much further than the first page of search results.
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WordPress website maintenance
We talked about this before. It is incredibly important to also maintain your professional website after you have it created. It keeps your website secure and up-to-date. Do you prefer to outsource the maintenance? Read more about our maintenance package here.
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Link building
Link building helps get higher rankings in Google. It is one more step in addition to optimizing your website and posting content.Link building is actively placing relevant links to your website and contribute to increasing the authority of your website. The higher the authority, the better Google understands that your website is a good contribution within certain themes.
You can choose to start link building yourself, or you can outsource it. At Monkey Vision , we have an enthusiastic marketing team that would love to get to work on that for you!
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Hosting and domain name
Your website can't just go online, you have to have it hosted. Hosting parties provide you with space to store information, images and other content for your website. A good hosting environment ensures that your website is optimally accessible. Every website also needs a unique domain name, the address where your website can be reached. At Monkey Vision you can not only have a professional website made, but also have your domain name registered and your website hosted.
How long will it take?
Is everything clear to you now? Do you have an idea of what you would like for your website? Then you probably want to know how long it will take for your professional website to go online. We will give you a brief insight into the schedule for creating a professional website. This takes an average of 9 weeks, but we should make it clear that there are many variables that affect this.
The preparations
Before we can start creating a website for you, we need a few things from you. We will ask you in advance for necessary data and content, such as images and text. Once we have that, our web builders can get to work.
Getting started (weeks 1-2)
After the preparation is done, a web builder from Monkey Vision will get to work. Within two weeks, he/she will build a homepage and several other important pages, to give you a good idea of the design.
Feedback (week 3)
After setting up the homepage and main pages, there is time and space to give feedback on these. We'd love to hear your feedback on the first pages, so we can then make the rest of the website the way you want it.
Back to work (weeks 4-6)
After receiving feedback, our web builder will continue working on your website. After three weeks there will be a final version of the website and all requested pages will have been created. Before we actually put the professional website you've commissioned online, we ask for some feedback from you once again.
Feedback (week 7)
This is basically the last feedback moment we routinely schedule when having a website created.
Final version (week 8-9)
In the last two weeks, the finishing touches are added and the website is made ready to go live. We plan two weeks for this to ensure that all feedback can be processed and the website is completely to your satisfaction.
Do you want a website at Monkey Vision?
On our website we give a lot of information about the different options and possibilities you have with us. Do you have questions or would you like to get started?
Then contact us. We'll be happy to help you!
